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Episode 2, Growing Pains: Players balance their lives at home and at school as they try to bounce back from a Week 1 loss to Verrado.
Sean Logan, The Republic | azcentral.com

USC sophomore safety Isaiah Pola-Mao, who was a three-time All-Arizona football player at Phoenix Mountain Pointe, has been nominated for Mayo Clinic’s 2019 Comeback Player of the Year Award.

He is one of the first three college football players nominated. There will wind up being 30 nominees for the award.

College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA), in association with The Associated Press (AP) and the Fiesta Bowl Organization make the selections. The oter early nominees are Troy University’s Kaleb Barker  and Kentucky’s Josh Pascha.

In the end, nine student-athletes will be chosen as finalists.

Three of the nominees will be chosen as winners, and recognized during the College Football Playoff Semifinal at the PlayStation Fiesta Bowl at State Farm Stadium in Glendale.

There will be $15,000 given to the three winners’ school’s general scholarship fund.

Pola-Mao suffered a dislocated shoulder in his first two years at USC that ended with season-ending surgeries.  He was able to redshirt his first year at USC.

Pola-Mao is off to a strong season. He intercepted a pass with 1:45 left in the opener to hold off Fresno State in a 31-23 win. He had four tackles, one for a loss, and a sack.

Last  week, in an upset of then No. 23 Stanford, he had four tackles.

USC is finding great success in its first two games with Arizona-grown players.

Quarterback Kedon Slovis (Scottsdale Desert Mountain) was named the Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week, and Austin Jackson (Phoenix North Canyon) was named the conference’s Offensive Line Player of the Week.

To suggest human-interest story ideas and other news, reach Obert at [email protected] or 602-316-8827. Follow him on Twitter @azc_obert.

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